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Monday, January 7, 2013

The Trials and Tribulations of Making E-book Covers

Book covers can be as simple or as complicated as you want to make them. If you have any kind of photo software, you can make a book cover.

To start you need the size. Do you want this book to look like a mass market paperback or a hardback?
Mass market paperbacks are 4 ¼” by 7”, with DPI set at 300, this converts to 1275 pixels by 2100 pixels. For Barnes and Noble’s Nook it would be 1269 by 2000 since 2000 is the largest they allow. A cover this size will work for both Kindle and the Nook.

Trade paperback and hardbacks vary in size but 6” by 9” is a good standard size, with DPI set at 300, this converts to 1800 pixels by 2700. For Barnes and Noble’s Nook it would be 1333 by 2000.

Now you have your shape. You can start in your photo program with a shape the right size. Your cover can be created using a colored shape, or a photo the right size.

Now you need to find a photo or image that will fit your book that is also legal for you to use. Do not search for a photo on the internet to use unless it is in public domain. You can draw/paint the image, take a photo, or find a painting or photo that is in public domain, or buy the rights to a image online. There are many places where you can get images to use for a few dollars. You don’t want the image to be too busy. The title and author’s name should be prominent. Your image does not need to overpower or make it difficult to read.

The following cover starts with the black 6: by 9” black shape. First I add a public domain image. I centered the image, but thought I might need more space for the title so I lowered the image a little.

A simple font title gets added

This is an example of using a different font for the author name.

The results are a simple easy cover.

If you want to use a full photo cover, trim your photo to fit the shape. For example this is a photo my daughter, Joanna Reasoner took.

To make it into a cover simply crop it.

With the title at the top, it was a little crowded, instead I put the author name on top. You’ll notice that I used plain black on top, but changed it to white with black outline when I moved it to the bottom. I wanted it to stand out more against the background.

You can add more text, but try to keep the cover as clean as possible. It’s wise to test it by zooming out to make the image small. You want to be able to read the title and author’s name when it’s thumbprint size.

A few of the covers I’ve created.

Livia J.
Washburn has been writing professionally for over 30 years. Washburn received the Private Eye Writers of
America award and the American Mystery award for the first Lucas Hallam
mystery, WILD NIGHT. She has been writing both mystery and western stories with
the Lucas Hallam character for almost 20 years. She is married to bestselling author, James Reasoner. Her website can be found at www.liviajwashburn.com, and she blogs when she can
find the time athttp://liviajwashburn.blogspot.com.

FREE E-BOOK COVER

Everyone who comments to this post will be entered in a free e-book cover contest. Cover will be designed for your book. Contest will end Sunday January 13th. Winner will be announced Monday January 14th. Good luck!UPDATE It's been pointed out that some of the readers who might comment wouldn't need a cover, so I'll offer one cover and an e-book of any of the books shown. Stagecoach Charlie and Bluebonnet Brunch are not books, just illustrations of how to make a cover.The winner of the cover or e-book was Kristy McCaffrey. Congratulations Kristy. If you did not receive my email, you can reach me at livia@flash.net.

43 comments:

This is fabulous stuff, Livia. Uniformity of design is important, I think. For example, we at Piccadilly Publishing always set our logo bottom left-hand corner (unless of course the layout of the illustration prevents us from doing so). Another useful tip is to search for free fonts. You'll be amazed at how many fonts are available to download and use free of charge. Try 'Free Old West Fonts' as a search term. And don't be afraid to experiment! By adding a two-color gradient, or a shadow, or thicker or thinner outline to the title you can often improve the visuality of it no end.

Livia, I really like the covers that you have created; especially the ones like you did for Wolf Creek. The covers tell a story and give a hint of what's inside. Definately an incentive to buy the book!Looking forward to more!Jerry Guin

Livia, you are a better woman than I am. There's no way I could do this, and you do such wonderful covers! You are so gifted. Thanks for this blog explaining how you go about it. I'm not sure I would ever attempt it.Cheryl

Livia--your instructions were so good I took notes. Hope you don't mind. I have numerous novels and short stories published, and I love my publisher and the covers I have.But I'm working toward self-publishing something, just to say I did it. I have the formatting, etc., down pretty well...but the cover stalled me. I'm trying Windows Paint, as others have said, but when I came to the part about the size..I stalled. Now, I understand those directions better. You must have been a teacher. Thanks for the lesson, and I'm happy to meet you.

Livia, I sure enjoyed this step-by-step. And your examples are gorgeous. I majored in oil painting in college but...digital stuff kinda scares me LOL. Anyway, if I won your cover, that MIGHT be the kickstart I need to make the decision to start self-pubbing. Happy new year to you and yours!

Celia, I remember looking all over the internet trying to find the sizes covers should be. My first covers were just hit and miss. I would just eye it. Finally I pulled out a standard mass market paperback and measured it, then did the same with a hardback, then converted it into pixels. Now I that I have my standard measurements, it makes it easier. No, I'm not a teacher, but my mother was and both of my daughters are. It skipped a generation.

Thanks, Jacquie. I have trouble paying someone else for something I can do. This is one of the reasons I've learned how to do a lot of things. With the help of family, James and I built our first home from mixing and pouring the cement for the foundation, to nailing the shingles on the roof. We even learned how to use a jackhammer for the septic system, which we also put in. It's nice knowing how to do these things. If you know several reasonable cover artists, that would be great to share. I'm sure a lot of writers are looking for nice covers that aren't very expensive.

I love your simple directions, and the covers look great! You're right, is IS satisfying to do something for yourself, and save the money for those things you can't. Thanks for the contest, I'm keeping my fingers and toes crossed that I win.

Thanks for the info! I've been mostly making my own banners and struggled with that for awhile. I've made one cover (for my short story) and kept it simple. I appreciate the dimensions because I honestly had no idea what I was doing with that. And the rights to the photos has me confused. How do you know if something is public domain? I've resorted to buying photos to be sure.

I can see by the number of comments that you have our attention. I have a question. You mentioned that it was necessary to have some type of photo software. Could you recommend a a few good ones that don't cost an arm and a leg?A very informative blog. Thank you!

I like PrintShop 23.1 because it's easy to use. Start with a blank page, add shapes, images, and text, then export as a 300 dpi jpg. I usually then take that and trim the white with Microsoft Image. Earlier versions of PrintShop will not work on Windows 7. If you have Vista, you can find PrintShop 23 for cheap. Most of my covers were made with that on my old computer. I found my copy at Half Price Books. Unfortunately, that computer has issues now.

I've also used Microsoft Picture It. I have Adobe Photoshop, but haven't had time to put it on the new computer to try. Most have some kind of photo software on their computer. If you can crop a photo and add text, you can make a cover.

You have to be a detective to determine if it's public domain or not. This is the way I understand it.

Copyright notices are no longer required in the United States, so you should never assume that lack of a notice means a photo isn’t protected by copyright.

It is in public domain if the photo was created by the U.S. government. A good source of public domain photos is the federal government.

It is in public domain if the photo lacks a copyright notice and was published before 1989. Although copyright notices are no longer required in the U. S., they used to be. If it was published without one, it went into public domain unless the owner fixed the problem within a certain time. Getting tricky, right?

Once a work’s copyright has expired it enters the public domain. To know when a work’s copyright expires, you must know when it was published.

There’s a originality requirement for copyright protection in the U.S., and a US district court decided that exact photographic copies of public domain paintings are not eligible for copyright. But be aware that other courts might disagree, should you end up getting sued. So, you can't even be sure of laws.

Very interesting post, Livia. Thank you for the info. I used Corel Paint Shop when I made some simple covers for an author friend. The text effects and colours took time to figure out and I have no idea about raster layers etc but the trial and error paid off well enough. I especially like your idea of beginning with the black background and adding the horizontal photo rather than using a full cover photo.

Wendy, trial and error is how all of my covers are created. The colored background with a horizontal photo is one of the easiest covers. It gives you a lot of room for the title and author name. If the image isn't exactly what I'm looking for, I've also been known to layer images.